Not
yet, however, was made known to them the decision that they were
to be treated as traitors of whom the province must be rid. No
attempt was made anywhere to distinguish loyal from disloyal
Acadians. Lawrence gave orders to the military officers to clear
the country of all Acadians, to get them by any necessary means
on board the transports which would carry them away, and to burn
their houses and crops so that those not caught might perish or
be forced to surrender during the coming winter. At the moment,
the harvest had just been reaped or was ripening.
When the stern work was done at Grand Pre, at Pisiquid, now
Windsor, at Annapolis, there were harrowing scenes. In command of
the work at Grand Pre was Colonel Winslow, an officer from
Massachusetts--some of whose relatives twenty-five years later
were to be driven, because of their loyalty to the British King,
from their own homes in Boston to this very land of Acadia.
Winslow issued a summons in French to all the male inhabitants,
down to lads of ten, to come to the church at Grand Pre on
Friday, the 5th of September, to learn the orders he had to
communicate.
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